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Friday, January 28, 2011

Cosplay: a many strangest thing

This was originally a reply to Geneakizuki's post regarding his blog topic "The Cancer of the Cosplay Community" a year ago, where other parties who cosplay have developed their own meaning for cosplaying. This isn't recent, and i have even talked about in my old Vox blog (gone now, should have saved that one) and was even published in a local cosplay mini-magazine back in 2005-2006.

There has been talks of cosplay being interpreted in so many ways other than just "cosplaying for fun". Its because people are willing to interpret cosplay the way they feel most comfortable with.

Consider the factors, or combination therewith:

People who cosplay for fun because they see it as nothing more than a past time.

People who cosplay for education see it as a means to learn new things

People who cosplay to socialize see it as a means to meet new people and gain relationships

People who cosplay to win or gain recognition means they need to prove to somebody or themselves that what they do is something worthwhile.

People who cosplay for profit means they simply need the money to either finance their cosplay (also a means to NOT ask money from parents) or to earn (a probable precursor to a modeling, craftsman or fashion career).

Early cosplayers could and would easily support "Cosplay is for Fun" because at that time, it was the only thing cosplay was worth taking: as an extension of your fandom. As we indulged more into cosplay, it branched out to other things cosplay can provide, such as education and self-improvement (elimination of stage fright, for example). As we move beyond, that's where things get complicated since there is no longer any unifying idea of what cosplay should be. People suddenly have different reasons to cosplay, and in the strictest technical terms, is still called cosplaying, even if the method and means are not necessarily for fun anymore.

So if we were to look back at our roots and start to understand the simple joys of cosplaying, maybe, just maybe we could be wiser in our decision in when, where and why we cosplay.